The Title VII Media Club

The Media Club is intended as an introduction of the basic skill sets associated with film/video production and TV broadcasting production. Each week students will be introduced to a variety of theories, skills, and projects that will help them understand the media field.

Students will also be given in-class exercises for critical thought, tackling issues of the First-Voice perspective in an effort to rework prevailing interpretations of “Indian-ness” in the media.

Throughout the course we will take a look at Media Literacy by examining stereotypes and stories, making connections between film and context, and reflect upon the relationships between image and identity, race and representation, gender and culture, as well as power and perception.

Course is open to any Native American CPS student grades Seventh through Twelfth interested in developing an understanding of the basics of film/video production within the context contemporary Native art and in media in general.

One of the main focuses of the Media Club will be film and video making with an emphasis on digital media. The course will branch out to focus on other areas in media; journalism, graphic design, with an emphasis on publishing a magazine, as well as internet media with orientation in digital media pertaining to streaming video and pod casting technologies.

This program seeks to open up horizons for possible future career opportunities for these Native American students, to introduce them to the technology, theoretical concepts, and vocational skills associated with the media. Also, to raise awareness of the possibility of more Native Americans working within the media, to assert more control over how Native Americans are seen, perceived, and accepted in today’s media-driven society.

First and foremost, the CPS Media Program should be the program that introduces Native students to the basics of video making and broadcasting to insure they attain a basic skill set to enter the job market at a entry-level post high-school or to get into advanced college programs. The idea that we are ensuring that Native American Students are given these job-related/post-high school skills will never be out of our sight and program focus.